Stories From The Road

Promise Resource Network: Charlotte’s Peer & Mental Health Recovery Collaborative

 

Who They Are

 

Promise Resource Network is a collaborative of peers, providers, families and community members committed to enhancing mental health recovery through education and system transformation. Promise Resource Network (formerly Mecklenburg’s PROMISE) employs individuals with lived experience of mental health challenges, who advance the understanding of recovery and best practices through training, consultation, peer support and advocacy.

It is a peer-operated 501c3 that is devoted to enhancing lives, communities, and families impacted by mental health and substance use challenges. By creating opportunities for recovery, advancing recovery knowledge and skills, and pairing our personal and professional experience of recovery, PRN challenges people to recover, systems to innovate, and practitioners to provide effective supports.

 

Their Vision

"We envision that every person experiencing emotional challenges will find the hope, inspiration and supports to move through challenges, discover their strengths, live their dreams, and find meaningful purpose in their lives."

 

Their Mission

"We are a team, united by our personal and professional experiences, partnering with individuals, organizations and communities to instill hope and encourage personal growth by providing education, consultation and peer support to advance recovery in policy and practice."

 

Their Initiatives

Recovery-oriented system transformation requires a presence and relevance at local, state and national levels. To pursue our mission and vision, PRN has established various initiatives that directly impact individual people and families, provider organizations and practitioners as well as communities and systems.

 

Recovery Hub

The Recovery Hub is an epicenter of recovery activity for Mecklenburg County. It is a partnership between PRN and Meridian Behavioral Health that offers an array of recovery-based supports. Our Recovery Navigators explore local opportunities, resources, and services with people to move beyond the illness-maintenance cycle under which traditional behavioral health systems operate to dream big and move toward their aspirations and dreams. The Recovery Hub also provides free daily recovery classes, home and community-based peer support,brief solution-focused therapy, and assistance to pursue home ownership, build financial health, succeed in employment aspirations and accomplish educational goals. The Recovery Hub is a Mecklenburg County initiative, designed to offer a variety of recovery-based resources for people with MH/SA challenges in our community that do not have Medicaid benefits.

 

Recovery University

Recovery University is a national technical assistance center that offers recovery trainings, webinars, and consultation to organizations, managed care organizations, and states as they move toward a recovery-based behavioral health system of care that expects high fidelity evidence-based practices,has as its foundation psychiatric rehabilitation, and yields recovery and personal quality of life outcomes.

 

Peer Academy

Peer Academy is their training and technical assistance entity that invests in future and current Peer Support Specialists and peer supervisors to build knowledge, skills and tools needed for effective peer support.

 

NC Employment First Technical Assistance Center

The NC|EF|TAC was established in response to a Department of Justice settlement that highlights employment as an effective path to recovery. Our NC|EF|TAC disseminates information on the evidence-based supported employment model, Individualized Placement and Support (IPS), and provides training to all Supported Employment IPS teams and Assertive Community Treatment team Employment Specialists in North Carolina. In partnership with the NC Best Practices Team, our TAC employees also conduct independent fidelity reviews and provides individualized technical assistance to managed care agencies and behavioral health organizations as they transition away from "readiness" approaches to "Employment First."

 

How To Contact

 

Promise Resource Network

1041 Hawthorne Lane

Charlotte, NC 28205

980-321-4021

 

 Peer Support, Recovery and Crisis Education:

 Kim Roszelle

 [email protected]

 (980) 321-4022

 

Schedule Community Presentations and Consultation:

Cherene Caraco

[email protected]

(704) 776-6708

 

Four Considerations: Am I Ready To Provide Peer Supports?

 

I was having a chat with a friend recently and the question that emerged was: How do you know when you are ready to do peer support work?.

This blog article is part of my exploration and answer to that question.

  There are four "drill-down" questions or four levels of considerations that I would ask myself to better clarify within yourself before launching into the peer workforce. These are tough but necessary as follows:

 

1. Wellness: Am I Well?
2. Advocacy: Can I Tell My Story?
3. Support: What Level of Support Can I Offer?
4. Mission: Is This My Calling?

 

 

1st Question: Am I well?

 

• Self-awareness: Your wellness affects everything

This has to do with a gut check by asking tough questions: How far am I into my own wellness? Do I have a relapse prevention plan? Have I experienced any crisis recently? Am I safe? I don't ask these things to be intrusive or cause you to have "ingrown eyeballs" but I think it is healthy to develop some self-awareness. The unexamined life is not worth living and your living and your effectiveness hinges on your level of self-awareness.

 

 

• Intentionality: Your commitment to your own well-being

Those that hire you are hiring you on the basis that you know yourself and where you are at in your own wellness. They are not hiring you to offer you peer supports but that you can offer than support to others. It simply comes down to this: At the moment you stop pursuing your own wellness, is the moment to you cease to provide peer supports. You cannot give what you do not have. Your effectiveness hinges on your wellness inside and outside the workplace.

• Prevention: Having a plan to be well and stay well

Do you have a WRAP Plan? Are you working your wellness plan? Do you have others on your plan that you check in with weekly? Have you shared your plan with supervisor? How often do you update your plan and tweak it? Not to be intrusive...but this is so important to show those that we support. We are the living proof. We are the evidence that wellness works because we are working our wellness. We are the evidence that recovery is real because it continues to be a reality in us.  It is important that we have a plan to be well and stay well.

 

2nd Question: Can I tell my story?

 

• Disclosure: When should I disclose?

I think it is important to realize that part of being a peer to knowing whether to share your story and when to share your story. Do we know that inner voice of wisdom to know when or when we should share. Are we trying to "one up" those who are sharing with us? Are we still trying to work through "our own stuff"? If you are finding yourself with a deeper need to be understood more than a desire to understand, then you must ask whether you need your own outlets to work through your own issues. Peers must know when to speak and when to listen.

• Trauma: Can I tell my story?

Are you comfortable in sharing your story with others? Are you still working through your own trauma or personal pain? Have you reached that safe place within yourself that you can share elements of your own story in a way that can benefit others? Have you spent time developing your own story? It might be helpful that you take time to think through your own personal history and understand your own story. Your story can be one of the most powerful tools of transformation in your recovery and in the recovery for others. Learning to craft and share your story to different audiences is important in knowing how it will land in the minds of those who we support.

 

• Advocacy: How to tell your story in a transformative way?

Have we taken the time to really think about the different elements of our story? Have we thought about the different audiences that we will would speak to and share with? Is there a difference in sharing with someone on the street vs. sharing with a group of clinicians? It is important to understand the communication process and learning to adapt our story (I didn't say compromise our story) so that it we share the elements of our story that will most benefit the hearer. It is about them and not us. We must learn to share our story so that it has the intended result of offering hope and transformation.

 

3rd Question: How much support can I give?

 

• Empowerment: Am I ready to support others?

Are you ready to get your hands dirty? Are you ready to dive into the some of the most rewarding and challenging work that you have ever done? Are you willing to get involved in the pains and joys of those who are working on moving forward in their lives? Are you able to support people without seeking to change? If you are used to being a "fixer" and you are feeling the need to help, then you may need to step back for a moment. Peer work is mutuality and about self-advocacy and self-direction and self-empowerment. We must be able to allow others to discover their own way and own path to recovery. We cannot change people and we must allow them the courage to chart their own course.

• Volunteering: What level of support can I offer?

Is this the kind of work that I would like to do for a few hours a week? Do I just want to start out by testing the waters first? There is no harm in deciding that this is a volunteer opportunity and starting slow. I think it would be better for you and for those that you are supporting for them to know that you are just starting out and beginning your own journey of self-discovery. This is not a compromise and some of the most powerful peer work (maybe in its purest form) when you are doing this work in an unpaid capacity. Those that you support will probably be greatly touched when they know you are truly on an equal playing field and you are doing this work beyond a pay check.

• Bi-Vocational: Can I handle more than one job?

Can I handle the pressure of two jobs? Will peer work pay the bills? Will one job compromise my effectiveness in the other job? These are really important considerations to be taken into account. There is no need to plant seed in the ground if the seeds in your hands are the ones that you need to eat. It is important for you to take into account your own life situation and sometimes it comes down to keeping the lights on,food on the table and the rent paid for you and those you love. No one gets into peer work to get rich. No peer is paid what they are worth.

 

4th Question: Is this my calling?

 

• Profession: How do I approach my work?

Do you approach your job with excellence? Do you consider that your name is tagged to everything you do? Your work transcends your job. Long after all is said and done when others walk through the gallery of your life, others will view the legacy you have left. The choice is yours whether they look at your work and shrug their shoulders or stare in wonder at the quality of your work. You get the final vote in whether you approach your work as an artist and as a professional.

• Passion: Does peer work give me a sense of fulfillment?

Are you all in on this? Does peer work tap into your "deeper sense of YES!!!"? Does this connect to your sense of purpose? I think at some level you understand that in your work life that you get two pay checks. One pay check is the money you are paid. The other pay check is the joy you get out of your job. If you are not getting the second pay check ( you must consider) is the first one really worth it? These are important considerations because peer work must at some level tap into your deeper sense of why you are here and what you are meant to do and become.

 

 

• Competence: Am I effective and am I teachable?

Are you willing to stretch? Are you able to receive feedback and be taught? Are you truly connecting with others in such a way that others say they benefit from your presence and friendship? I think how you answer these questions may be some of the toughest yet important ones to answer. You have to be teachable and being willing to take constructive feedback on the chin. You must at some level see that you are able to connect with others in such a way that they walk away better because of it. There is nothing wrong with standing at the threshold and seeing that this might not be for me.

Take time to think through these different questions and stages of decision making and then launch your boat. Being and becoming a peer support specialist is an amazing journey once you have done your homework and the necessary soul work required.

Enjoy the journey.

 

 

Recovery-To-Practice Training: Implementing Peer Supporters in the Workplace

 

This is Recovery to Practice's 4-Part Video Series in how to implement Peer Supporters into the workplace.

Through education and training, the Recovery to Practice (RTP) program supports the expansion and integration of recovery-oriented care delivered by mental health providers. RTP fosters a better understanding of recovery, recovery-oriented practices, and the roles of the various mental health professions in promoting recovery. Implementing Peer Supporters in the Workplace - Module 1 This module offers an update on the peer support movement and over of the Recovery to Practice training for experienced peer support providers.

 

Implementing Peer Supporters in the Workplace - Module 1

 

This module offers an update on the peer support movement and over of the Recovery to Practice training for experienced peer support providers.

 

Implementing Peer Supporters in the Workplace - Module 2

 

This module offers a description and role of peer supporters.

 

 

Implementing Peer Supporters in the Workplace -Module 3

 

This module shows an integration of medial and recovery models.

 

 

Implementing Peer Supporters in the Workplace - Module 4

 

This module shares the issues that might affect successful implementation of this training.

 

A Toolkit to Assess Cultural Competency in Mental Health Peer Run Programs

 

Find The Toolkit Here-->  Download Cultural Competency in Mental Health Toolkit

 

This tool was created to help mental health, consumeroperated programs and self-help groups assess their own cultural competency. By using it, you’ll identify the ways in which your activities are already responsive to culturally diverse peers and areas where you could use some improvement. You’ll also create specific action plans to enhance your cultural competency in five important areas.

Focus Area 1: Administration, Policies and Guidelines

Focus Area 2: Peer Providers and Group Leaders

Focus Area 3: Services and Support

Focus Area 4: Program and Group Environment

Focus Area 5: Communication and Language Capacity

This tool was evaluated in a national pilot test. They wanted to learn whether mental health peer-run programs and self-help groups find this tool easy to use and effective in bringing about needed changes. An invitation went out to peer-run programs across the country and nine programs were chosen to participate in the evaluation. The programs are in Arizona, California, Oregon, Texas, Wisconsin and Hawaii. Each program participated in a two-hour training to discuss the tool and the programs’ roles and responsibilities in the evaluation. After the training, the participants used the tool to rate their organizations’ levels of cultural competency and to develop Diversity Action Plans to address areas where they wanted to be more inclusive. They also participated in biweekly telephone meetings to discuss their successes and challenges as they applied their Diversity Action Plans.

 

Questions for Peer Support Supervisors to Ask Themselves?

Think about these questions that have come out of Peer Supervision within the VA as a compass for the quality of supervision you are offering your Peer Specialists in the field. 

How would your Peer Specialists respond to these statements?....

•My supervisor understands my role as a peer support service provider?

•My supervisor understands my role as my supervisor?

•My supervisor does a good job of supervising me?

•I am able to meet/consult with my supervisor as often as needed?

•My supervisor advocates for me when needed?

•I trust my supervisor?

•I believe my supervisor has trust in me?

•I observe appropriate boundaries with my co-workers?

•I behave ethically in the workplace?

•I am treated the same way as any other team member?

•I believe that my supervisor received needed information and training before beginning his role?

•It is important for my supervisor to monitor my mental health as well as my work performance?

•I wish my supervisor would do more of the following:

–Advocate along with me

–Offer a wider variety of tasks

–Respect my abilities

–Observe more in the field

–Provide us with more training

–Have more time to talk

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I think it is healthy for Peer Support Supervisors to have a "healthy look" and be willing to ask their staff as peers to offer feedback. The quality of supervision would increase. The levels of communication, trust, respect and loyalty of one's team would increase as well.

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Copy of the Full Report

From "A 2010 Report on Peer Support Supervision in VA Mental Health Services and the (DBSA)"

Dr. Matthew Chinman, PhD: New Release of VA Toolkit for Peer Specialists

 

VA Peer Specialist Toolkit: Download The VA Peer Specialist Toolkit

 

From the US Dept of Veteran Affairs in the Center for Health Equity Research and Promtion just released their Toolkit for Peer Specialists developed by Matthew Chinman, PhD, Chief of the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion's Implementation Core and Investigator with the VISN4 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers (MIRECC), based on the lessons learned from the VA-funded evaluation of their impact on clinical teams.

 

Dr. Matthew Chinman

 

 

The toolkit was born out of research done by the VISN 4 and VISN 22 MIRECCs conducted a rigorous study focusing specifically on Veterans within VHA. This study, called Peers Enhancing Recovery, compared 149 Veterans with peer specialists on their mental health case management teams to 133 Veterans whose case management teams did not include peer specialists. The researchers followed both groups over one year and asked Veterans about their quality of life, relationships, symptoms, and their ability to self-manage and be active in their health care.

Veterans who had peer specialists on their treatment teams reported significant improvement in their perceived ability to actively manage their own health care. This suggests that integrating peer support into treatment may play a key role in encouraging Veterans to become more active in their treatment and recovery.

 

See more at: http://www.cherp.research.va.gov/CHERP/features/FeatureStory_ChinmanAug2014.asp#sthash.nlyj3YnB.dpuf

12 Simple Ways To Show Appreciation To Peers On Your Team

 

1. A simple, sincere word of thanks
2. Post a note on their door
3. Create a simple "ABCD" card that given when a peer goes  "Above the Call of Duty"
4. Write about them in a company-wide email
5. Have the team sign a "Certificate of Appreciation" and frame it
6. Elect and post them to the "Wall of Fame"
7. Establish a "Rock Solid Award" to recognize peers who consistently do their job well
8. Start a company scrapbook highlighting different peers you're appreciating
9. Make a YouTube thank you video
10. Send a post card
11. Have team give a standing ovation
12. Bring them a cup of coffee or their favorite beverage

 

Quick Tips: 9 Simple Ways to Encourage Someone

 

Passing The Baton: What To Do When You Leave Your Job?

 

I am transitioning away from my current job into a different department so I am in a situation where I am having to disclose to the people that I support that I will be transitioning away. 

I thought that I would take a few moments and provide some quick tips for your exit strategy:

1. Talk over your exit strategy and “departure script” with your supervisor and team
2. Write out and rehearse the essence of what it is you are trying to say
3. Go over the history and needs of each participant with the other team members
4. Plan each encounter and the timing of sharing this information with each participant
5. Share as early & often as needed and express the continuity of care they’ll receive
6. Arrange the number of meetings you feel that you and your team member should visit
7. Explain the reasons for leaving in a way that they can understand without fear
8. Explain that nothing in their world is changing now except your level of involvement
9. Make sure each participant has the names & contact numbers of important people
10. Keep everything on a positive and upbeat note and finish strong.

It is important if you are working with people with mental health challenges  (or basically anyone in your life) that you have a transition plan in place to maintain trust, to minimize fear and to ensure a continuity of care once you have transitioned away. 

It's all about finishing strong and making sure everyone is well-supported when the baton is passed.

 

Interview with Brandon Tankersley, Director of Peer Services, Monarch

 

I had a chance to catch up with Brandon Tankersley , BSBA, MEd, CPSS (at the First Mental Health Reccovery Conference in Greensboro) who is the Director of Peer Services for Monarch in North Carolina.  He believes that hiring individuals with life experiences is beneficial because these people possess knowledge that will allow them to view situations from a different perspective which can only help to broaden and strengthen a recovery.  

(The link to his remarkable recovery story at SAMSHA is here.)

 

Brandon Tankersley

 

What does a typical week look like for you?

I travel state-wide to speak regarding Peer Service, and to make myself available to staff and meet with other Directors to discuss missions and ideas to allow people in my same circumstance to succeed. I coordinate Action Plans and Training efforts. I spend time documenting ideas and how those new ideas that have already been put in to an Action Plan are working or not working. I write documentation and policies for new recruits. I address financial issues to remain in a pre-established budget for Peer Service. I interview potential new CPSS recruits around the state. I attend many conferences, summits, and seminars to further enlighten me as to how I can help other people with MH-IDD-SA challenges.

Advice you would give new recruits?

1. Learn to overcome stigma. Be prepared to understand that there may be negative stigma related to you as a new recruit. Understand that you should not to take things like this personal.  We should do our job to the best of our ability, and everything should eventually work itself out.
2. Be organized. Remain organized and keep GOOD documentation.
3. Keep your promises. Don't ever be late and stick to your word.
4. Show your credentials. Carry with you, in a folder your Certification being Peer Support Specialist in your state.
5. Be smart. There is no need to be over-cautious, but be "smart" when entering a person you serve home, and if you feel uncomfortable do not be afraid to leave or request meeting in a neutral location until you feel otherwise.
6. Do your homework. Do research AHEAD OF TIME about ways to address potential problems people we serve may have (i.e. have a pre-established list of different kinds of support groups that meet in your county, go online and Google smart ways to handle potential problems - and WRITE DOWN what you discover and keep record etc...).
7. Initiate meaningful discussion.-Come up with a list of questions you can ask people we serve to promote discussion related towards recovery (i.e. What's on your mind? Are you happy? How can I help you fix a problem? Are you taking your medication regularly? Are you attending any groups? Are you using? Do you have a WRAP? etc...)

The greatest challenges in peer supervision?

1. Learn to deal with difficult questions.-Learning to deal with the questions like - "should people with life experience, that have received recovery service from an organization be permitted to work with that same organization?", "What policies do you make to handle confidentiality?"
2. Encourage self-management.-There is a need to come up with a guide that is used with every person we serve that provides learning skills to enhance self-management My team uses WHAM (Whole Health Action Management).
3. Again, be organized.-Be organized and keep good documentation.
4. Be friendly without friendships.-We want to be friendly, but we also want to avoid becoming "friends" with people that you supervise. You are their Supervisor, not their friend.

What do you see as the greatest needs for the peer workforce?

1. Daily, being prepared.-Be prepared with and understand the role of a good, personal recovery story.
2. Committed to our own wellness. Understand WRAP  (Wellness Recovery Action Planning) and other wellness tools
3. Being supportive. Refrain from giving too much advice, remember we are not a doctor or a psychologist.  Our job is to help the people you serve learn ways to go about obtaining good advice.